Coughlin vs. Belichick: Former Parcells aides go head-to-head this time

Thursday

Jan 31, 2008 at 12:25 PM

FOXBOROUGH, MASS. — The whistle-blowing brainiacs trying to outsmart each other in Super Bowl XLII used to work together on projects like this.

DAVID BROWN

FOXBOROUGH, MASS. — The whistle-blowing brainiacs trying to outsmart each other in Super Bowl XLII used to work together on projects like this.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Giants coach Tom Coughlin spent three years swapping the occasional X and O as assistants in New York and shared the sideline in Super Bowl XXV, when the Giants upset the Bills 20-19.

"We worked together a lot," Coughlin said. "We spent time trying to help one another out and developed a relationship of cooperation and trying to get the best out of both units so that our team would be the best that it could be."

Serving under Bill Parcells, Belichick, then the defensive coordinator and secondary coach, worked with Coughlin, the receivers coach, on a daily basis from 1988-90.

"We had a good relationship," Belichick said. "Tom was a good guy to work with. He's smart, and I think we both learned a lot from each other about different receiver techniques and coverages. He would help us, we'd help them, both in preparing for that particular game and also concepts."

Myron Guyton, a starting safety on the Giants' last Super Bowl champion, said Belichick was a perfectionist devoted to film study and mental preparation, and Coughlin an unforgiving disciplinarian who worked his players harder than anyone on the staff.

"They're very similar coaches when it comes to their work ethic," Guyton said. "They both demand a lot out of their players. Belichick's practice was kind of a more mental practice. We were off the field at a decent hour. Where (Coughlin) would keep his wide receivers on the field. They'd be the last ones to leave."

As the on-field leader of Belichick's defense, Guyton met with the defensive coordinator every day. Witnessing Belichick's talent to create match-ups that favored the Giants, Guyton said he always knew the coach would be successful at the helm of his own team.

But he wasn't so sure about Coughlin.

Players tended to respect Belichick's approach. He made life simple, giving them a good plan and expecting them to execute it.

"All (a coach) can do is teach and prepare and all (players) can do is play," Guyton said. "I think that's what Belichick does a really good job of. You have to be in the position to make plays. He's going to put you in those positions."

Coughlin's style was less popular with the Giants, Guyton said. Playing in an offense that leaned heavily on the run, the receivers didn't like that they had to spend more time on the practice field than other units.

Guyton said he didn't think Coughlin could win a team's approval with that style.

"I'm surprised that they're in the Super Bowl this year," Guyton said. "I never thought he was a players' coach. I can tell you the wide receivers, they weren't happy. I didn't see a reason for them to be the last off the field every time. I always felt like he overworked his players."

Coughlin has been credited this year for softening his hard-line approach. Guyton — who played with the Pats in 1994 and '95, his final two seasons — said Coughlin would have lost the team if he hadn't adapted.

"He had to," Guyton said.

Coughlin and Belichick both left the Giants after the 1991 Super Bowl, when Parcells retired for the first of three times. Belichick became head coach of the Browns, and Coughlin took over at Boston College.

Belichick said the coaches remained friends even as Coughlin moved from BC to the Jaguars and Belichick followed Parcells to the Pats and Jets before returning to New England as head coach in 2000.

"He's a good personal friend, (his wife) Judy and his family," Belichick said. "We've spent time with them away from football, whether it was at BC, Jacksonville and so forth. I respect Tom. I think he's an outstanding coach and wish him well in every game but this one."